3D Design, Layout, & Engineering of Grain, Feed, & Seed

poultry & SwineFeed Mill Engineerng
60 TPH Grind-Ingredient Batch-Mix
30 TPH CPM Pellet Mill_7730

3D CAD, Design, and Engineering of Poultry & Swine Feed Mill by: Dwight Kinzer
using Autodesk Inventor Professional software

Process Equipment & Design, LLC
Sedgwick, Kansas, USA

www.grainfeedseed.com

Feed Mill Design Services

Dwight Kinzer 620-951-4211

USA and International Animal Feed Mill Engineering & Design Experience:

Aquaculture;
Cattle
Dairy;
General Purpose;
Poultry; and
Swine

Animal Feed Mill Engineering, Design, and Master Planning:

Bolted Steel Ingredient & Finished-Fee Bins & Hoppers;
Ingredient Receiving Systems;
Bulk Grain & Ingredient Storage;
Grinding Systems;
- Roller Grinders
- Hammermill
Batching Systems;
Dosing Systems;
Mixing Systems;
Pelleting Systems;
Packaging Systems; and
Loadout Systems.

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The Hex-Pak reduces the turnkey cost of building segregated bulk storage by up to 70% by combining the benefits and features of the Modular Load-Bearing Structural Column with the Track-And-Trolley Conveyor Guidance System. The Hex-Pak uses hexagonal bins with shared walls that reduce by up to 40% the square footage of wall required compared to a shared wall square bin system, and up to 39% less square footage of wall compared to a plurality of segregated bulk storage.

The track-and-trolley conveyor guidance system significantly reduces distribution conveyance requirements by up to 94% and reclaim conveyance by up to 85%, which of course reduces energy and maintenance needs. But possibly just as important, the distribution track-and-trolley conveyor guidance system eliminates intermediate discharge gates, thus eliminating a primary source of commingling.

Customer Description
In the agricultural sector, there are at least six markets for the Hex-Pak:
1. Commercial warehouses, also known as commercial elevators or commercial grain storage
a. Identity preserved storage – cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
b. Rice storage – cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
c. In conjunction with grain dryers – cluster of 6 to 9 bins
d. Bulk fertilizer and seed storage – cluster of 6 to 18 bins at 1,000 to 10,000 bushels/bin
e. Overhead loadout – cluster of 6 to 12 bins at 1.000 to 3,000 bushels/bin
2. Seed industry
a. Bulk storage bins – cluster of 6 to hundreds of bins, at 1,000 to 5,000 bushels/bins
b. Overhead loadout – cluster of 6 to 12 bins at 1,000 to 3,000 bushels/bin
c. Complete seed plants
d. Corn seed dryers
3. Animal feed manufacturing
a. Bulk ingredient storage
b. Complete feedmills
4. Edible pulses and legumes
a. Organic grain processors
b. Identity preserved processors
c. Edible bean cleaning and packaging facilities
5. Nut processors
a. Identity preserved storage - cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
6. Farm storage
a. Identity preserved storage – cluster of 6 to 40 bins at 5,000 to 30,000 bushels/bin
b. Combined systems such as IP storage, grain/seed cleaning, grain drying, and feed mill.

The entire grain industry worldwide has experienced at least some trends shifting from a bulk commodity mindset to one of product differentiation and segmentation, trace-ability from farm to processor, and contract production of specific traits for a targeted purpose. However, the expense of shifting from a bulk infrastructure to one based upon segregation has currently been prohibitive for most commodities due to the high cost of conventional segregated storage. The global rice industry is currently changing from bag storage to segregated bulk storage, but the high expense of segregated systems is hindering modernization.

A major roadblock to the progress of biotechnology in agriculture is the current grain handling and storage infrastructure, which is comprised of large storage bins that do not provide for segregation of grains based upon grower, variety, genetically modified organism (GMO) status, protein or moisture levels, or other characteristics. Current material handling systems also have inherent flaws that commingle the grains.

Traditional building technology can only provide a high purity level of segregation at low storage volumes and handling capacities similar to seed production facilities, which are very expensive to build. High-capacity commodity handling and storage terminals that have large numbers of segmented silos with high purity of confinement are difficult to design and construct. Although GMOs and Identity Preserved (IP) grain can provide tremendous benefit to the grower, processor, and humanity in general, even the premium that can be realized from these types of gains cannot offset the current high cost of available systems. This limitation becomes especially significant when this infrastructure must be built along multiple points of the distribution chain - the grower, the commercial elevators, the port facilities, and the processors.

“Point-of-Origin” trace-ability is currently difficult to achieve because the majority of commercial and farm grain storage infrastructure is built for efficient handling and storage of large quantities of bulk materials. “Point of Origin” traces all grain, feed ingredients, and foodstuffs to origin to minimize the liability risk to the processor should something go amiss down the process chain, or as a result of disease or other contamination. As an example, imagine the costs of packaged product recalls without such trace-ability. If fifty farmers collectively store their grain in a 200,000-bushel storage silo at the local grain elevator, how can the grain be traced to origin once it is made into a corn chip? For instance, in the case of a product recall involving GMO contamination, the processor would prefer to recall the product made from a forty-acre, 4,000-bushel field that cross-pollinated with a trait-specific GMO, but, as is the case today, the processor must recall all of the package products originating from the 200,000 bushels that were commingled in a large storage tank.

The commercial grain industry can use a Hex-Pak to supplement their existing large round storage bins. The Hex-Pak would allow the farmer and elevators to take advantage of premiums that would otherwise be lost, by providing a means to cost effectively segregate the premium grades from lesser grades. Growers and elevators would also like to be able to take advantage of opportunities requiring trace-ability, for storing specialty crops, identity preservation, and for segregating stored commodities based upon moisture, protein, grade, and classification. The industry furthermore has a need for temporary storage during GMO testing, grading, and classification before transferring the grain to a larger bin.

The USDA estimates about 300 million bushels of commercial grain storage is built each year in the United States. There are over 9,000 commercial grain warehouses in the US, and a good many need a Hex-Pak to augment their large commercial storage bins. This translates into 9,000 potential customers in the US alone for this million to multi-million dollar patented product with a good profit margin.

It has been suggested that the Hex-Pak is perfect for rice because rice is segregated based upon many parameters. Many parts of the global rice industry are only recently transforming from bag to bulk storage, but large round bins are not suitable due to the amount of segregation that is required. The lack of suitable, economical segregated storage has hindered the modernization of the rice industry.

The seed genetics business can now provide the grower and/or processor specific crop traits for targeted purposes, and these different varieties can have characteristics that range from natural pesticides residing within the plant to ward off insects, to high oil and protein levels for a pig farmer, to enzymes and proteins for industrial chemical or pharmaceutical manufacturing purposes.

Just like the feed industry, meaningful data is lacking on how many seed facilities are built a year in North America or globally. Many seed companies spend considerable amounts of capital on square bolted bins for various aspects of the post-harvest storage (primarily), drying (corn seed), conditioning, treating, and packaging processes. The Hex-Pak concept is perfect for the seed industry and it would appreciate the reduction in capital outlays for segregation. As the cost is reduced for segregated storage structures, the seed companies will most likely find additional uses for the Hex-Pak. Seed companies naturally want to preserve an identity as much as possible and do not like to blend lots of seed together. The seed industry is a natural fit for the Hex-Pak.

The reason large animal feed manufacturing facilities are still constructed with slip-formed concrete is due to the limitations of a bolted steel structure. A high capacity feed production process requires more ingredient storage. The conventional square bolted steel bin is generally limited to a 10 foot wall with 100 cubic foot of storage per foot of sidewall height compared to the slip form concrete that can custom design the size and shape of each ingredient bin for its storage requirements. A hexagon silo with a 10-foot wall provides 259.8 cubic foot of storage per foot of sidewall height, which will allow a shared-wall, bolted steel structure to store quantities required for large throughput facilities. The reduced cost of small to medium sized feed mills using the Hex-Pak design might also encourage large vertically integrated meat producers to rethink a mammoth centrally located feed plant for a series of smaller feed mills each dedicated to a region of barns.

Just like the grain, feed, and seed industries, the nut industry desires the ability to segregate their nuts into a wide spectrum of grades and sizes, but cannot justify the cost of segregated infrastructure.

Farmers, especially large farming operations, strive to take advantage of premiums but can be limited in their options due to the high cost of multiple storage bins. What may be the greatest opportunity for the Hex-Pak to the farming community is its ability to cost-effectively incorporate a wide number of operations into one structure such as seed cleaning, feed manufacturing, grain cleaning, truck load-out bins, grain drying as well as storage for bulk purchases of ingredients and seed.

Market Comparison
Current technology for constructing segregated storage revolves primarily around three types of storage: 1) Round steel hopper bins (e.g. Wheatland, Meridian, Fresien)
2) Square steel bolt together (commonly seen in feed and seed mills), and
3) Cement slip form construction (larger grain and feed facilities).

Several issues exist with all of these designs. Round steel hopper systems take up a large amount of real estate, require extensive conveyance equipment, and have clean out and segregation challenges related primarily to the intermediate discharges. Square steel systems are expensive to construct as they require cranes and millwrights and they also still require a large amount of conveying equipment. Concrete slip form silos are expensive but useful for high through put facilities.

A comparison of segregated storage systems (Appendix B and C) demonstrates that the substantial savings in steel and conveyance equipment result in a very cost effective and efficient segregated storage
system. Additional benefits include efficient use of land space (a major challenge for round steel storage systems), infinite variability of design for customer needs, and finally the most important: meeting the needs of a customer who would prefer segregated storage for their operation, but today does not have it due to practicality of traditional systems, their costs, and space restraints.

Below (and in Appendix C) is a drawing showing two types of traditional segregated bulk storage systems:
1. A cluster of individual round hopper bottom silos
2. A cluster of shared wall square hopper bottom bins

As can be seen on the right side of this drawing, a square shared-wall bin with a ten-foot wall is one and a half times taller than the Hex-Pak to hold the same volume, so not only does the Hex-Pak require 40% less square foot of wall than the square bin, but the Hex-Pak walls are lighter in gauge. A 40% reduction of materials translates to a 40% reduction of construction expense. However, the Hex-Pak will require more square footage of bin ceiling and/or roof and the hoppers will be larger than the shared wall square bins. In this example, the square bins require 869-feet of conveyance with 41 intermediate discharge gates versus the Hex-Pak with 131-feet of conveyor without any intermediate discharge gates.

On the left side of the drawing is a group of 36 round hopper bottom silos. The round bin has what is termed ‘hoop strength’, so the round bin will have a lighter gauge wall than the Hex-Pak. However, a plurality of round bins requires up to 39% more square footage of wall than a shared wall hexagon.

Another drawback of a plurality of round hopper bottom bins is their conveyance requirements, and auxiliary accessories such as catwalks, support towers, and intermediate discharge gates. In this example, the round bins require 2,161feet of conveyors, 39 intermediate discharge gates, and 1,153feet of catwalk with 15 support towers. In comparison, the Hex-Pak has 131feet of conveyor, no intermediate discharge gates, and 60feet of catwalk.

Seed & Edible Processing Design Services

Dwight Kinzer 620-951-4211

USA and International Seed Cleaning Engineering, Design, & Layout Experience:

Hybrid Corn Seeds;
Soybean Seeds;
Cereal Grains (barley, wheat);
Legumes (alfalfa, beans, peas, lentils);
Vegetable Seeds; and
Flower Seeds.

Edible Systems Design & Engineering Experience:

Pinto Beans;
Navy Beans;
Kidney Beans; and
Cereal Grain Processing.

3D CAD, Design, and Engineering of Seed Cleaning & Edible Bean Systems:

Aspiration;
Color, Optical, Thermal Sorting;
Density (gravity separator);
Dust Collection for precise aspiration;
General Exhaust Dust Collection for white (grain) & red (treated) dust;
Gentle Handling conveyors, elevators, and storage;
Length (indent);
Packaging (small-bag to tote-bag);
Seed Dryers;
Texture (destoners, dodder mills); and
Width (graders).

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Concrete Slipform Grain Elevator 110 Rail Car Shuttle loading of corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, barley 10,000 BPH Grain Dryer

Grain Storage System Design Services

Dwight Kinzer 620-951-4211

USA and International Grain Storage Engineering & Design Experience:

Barley;
Canola;
Chickpeas;
Commercial Grain Storage Systems;
Corn;
Ethanol Corn Storage Systems;
Ethanol Dried Distillers Grains (DDG) Storage & Loadout;
Green & Yellow Field Peas;
Identity Preserved Segregated Storage;
Lentils;
On-Farm Grain Storage Systems; and
Strategic Long-Term Grain Storage.

3D CAD, Design, and Engineering of Grain Systems:

Aeration and Cooling of Stored Grains;
Automation;
Corrugated Galvanized Steel Grain Storage Bins;
Concrete Silos for Grain Storage;
Grain Cleaning Systems;
Grain Drying Systems;
Ground Pile Grain Storage – Temporary Bunker;
Hi-Speed Rail and Truck Receiving and Loadout Systems;
Hoop Barn Grain Storage;
Segregated Storage for Identity Preserved Commodities; and
Strategic Grain Storage Systems.

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Before presenting the services that Dwight Kinzer provides through his company Process Equipment & Design LLC (PE&D), let’s first cover the services PE&D does NOT provide:

NOT a manufacture representative;
- Although, I’ve been a representative for Andritz-Sprout, Bemis Packaging, Brock Grain & Feed Systems, Carter-Day, Donaldson-Day, Magnetic Products, and Sortex, I have not worked as Mfg Rep since 2004.
NO Equipment Sales;
- In the past I have been a grain/feed/seed equipment salesman, but I have not sold or collected a commission since 2004.
NOT a Contractor;
- I have worked for several contractors, such as Borton, McC, Inc, and Todd & Sargent, but I have not worked for a contractor since 2013, nor am affiliated with a construction company.
NOT a Registered Architect or Professional Engineer.

I am a Neutral Designer. I don't care who is hired as a contractor or the equipment installed, as long as it is done correctly.

Using my 34 years (1985) of experience with commercial grain, feed, and seed systems, 20 years of 2D CAD and 12 years of 3D modeling, I’ve worked for a diverse spectrum of clients ranging from small ma/pa companies, to small & large contractors, to multinational corporations, to a global engineering firm on commercial/industrial grain/feed/seed bulk handling, storage, drying, processing, and packaging systems.

Many projects I work on are simple, such as a client emailing me a hand sketch that I use to create a 3D model to get the client accurate estimating information, or emailing me a scanned set of old paper drawings of a feed mill, seed cleaning plant, or grain elevator to be replicated in digital 2D or 3D.

Google Earth now makes it possible to view an outdoor location anywhere in the world and sometimes measure it too. The need to physically visit a site is often no longer necessary, or can be postponed until a first round of drawings and evaluation is completed. For remodels and equipment upgrades, old paper or autocad drawings of the existing facility emailed to me are often sufficient for accurate design and layout.

In other scenarios my involvement can more in-depth, such as the 3D conceptual design and budget estimation of a remodel or new facility, or hiring me to hop on the next flight half-way around the world to assist/evaluate a proposed, or on-going project, or acting as a Project Engineer and Project Manager through the life of a project.

If you can use my services, it’s pretty simple - $75 per hour plus expenses and my availability is based on current work load.

I do ALL of the work. I am NOT a firm – I do all of the work, notwithstanding architectural, PE, or other professional services hired to contribute to a project.

Most importantly, I would like to thank you for visiting my website and viewing previous 3D projects.

With Kind Regards,

Dwight Kinzer

Process Equipment & Design LLC

Sedgwick, Kansas 67135 USA

620 - 951 - 4211

sales@grainfeedseed.com

dwight dot kinzer @ gmail dot com